Florida Marlins
From SoSH
| Established: | 1993 |
| Former Team Names: | None |
| Ballpark: | Dolphin Stadium |
| World Series Titles: | 2 |
| Pennants: | 2 |
| Division Titles: | 0 |
| Wild Cards: | 2 |
Contents |
Franchise History
The Florida Marlins are a Major League Baseball team based in the Miami, Florida metro area and play their home games in the suburb of Miami Gardens. They are in the Eastern Division of the National League.
The team was added in the 1993 expansion along with the Colorado Rockies, beating out competing bids in St. Petersburg, Orlando and Washington, D.C. They immediately moved into Joe Robbie Stadium, which was designed as a football stadium with a huge field that could use retractable seats on one side to expand into a baseball field.
In only a decade since their inception into the majors, the Marlins have been highly successful on the field, winning two World Series, in 1997 and in 2003 with "the team that shocked the world." The Marlins had much success under Jack McKeon, who led the Marlins to three consecutive winning seasons. Now, Fredi Gonzalez is the manager, after the second post-championship houseclearing since 1997. In spite of the on field success, the franchise has suffered over the years from relatively low attendance. The Marlins management has insisted that a new baseball-only stadium is imperative to survival in South Florida, and that if one would not be built, the team would seek relocation to another city. San Antonio, Texas, made a serious push to move the Marlins there. The Miami suburb of Hialeah also offered land for a ballpark. In the end, a deal was reached to build a new retractable-roof ballpark at the location of the old Orange Bowl stadium prior to the 2008 season, with opening scheduled in 2011. As part of the deal, the Marlins will rename as the "Miami Marlins" when they move into the new park.
Fast Facts
- Although mired by poor attendance during bad and mediocre years, often the worst in baseball, when they win, they sell out big. During the 1997 World Series, Game 7 ended with 67,204 fans singing "We Are the Champions" for the very first on-field trophy presentation, now a standard when the home team of the deciding game wins the World Series. Game 6 set an all-time World Series attendance record of 67,498.
Retired Numbers
- 5 - Carl Barger (Executive)
Local Media
External Links
- Florida Marlins - Baseball-Reference.com
